The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-01-12
Wonders Of Dreams.

A prominent Philadelphia physician,
who, as a specialist in diseases of the
brain has wide reputation, is en-
gagged in writing a little book about
dreams and dreamers. In dscursive
mood the doctor talks about the
psychological phenomenon commonly
spoken of as dreams in a most enter
tanning way. Generally" said he,
the other evening, ave think of moth
ing so swift as the electric current,
and yet flash of lighting is a slow
coach compared with the rapidity with
which, upon occasions, the human
brain operates. Nothing shows this in
so striking a manner as the wonderful
performances of the mind in dreams
The events of years, to the most minute
detail, are recalled in a second, and
purely imaginary events, covering years
and decades, are pictured so as to be
retained permanently upon the mind
and are conjured up in the hundredth
part of minute. Some years ago a
friend of mine related to me the par
ticulars of striking proof of this fact.
lie had been nursing another friend
whose illness was such that he re-
quired constant watching. My friend
had been at his bedside for nearly ten
hours. A little French clock stood in
an adjoining room which struck the
half hours, and thus gave notice of the
time to administer the patients medi-
cines. AT two O'Clock dose of morphia
had to be given the sick man, and the
nurse was waiting for the little clock
to strike. He was very sleepy and
could with difficulty keep his eyes open.
Presently the first tinkling stroke of
the hour sounded. AT that moment my
friend fell asleep in his chair lie
dreamed a most wonderful dream, the
details of which it would be tedious to
relate just now. The events in the
dream were spread over three years,
during which time he had been to
Paris, to London, to New Orleans, and
made innumerable brief trips by land.
lake and river. His vision began with
an execution, when the dreamer saw
his own wife hanged. The most mi
mute details of life and travel and adj.
venture were distinctly portrayed, and
my friend estimated that a novel OF
two big volumes could be written in
merely outlining the events of the
vision. When he awoke with a start
at the climax of the execution he heard
the French clock strike one. Suppos-
ing that he had been asleep several
hours, he felt some alarm. His pa
tient, however, was sleeping quietly,
and when he went into the other room
to look at the clock he was astonished
and incredulous to find that the stroke
of the clock he had heard upon awak-
ing was but the second stroke of two
O'Clock, and that his wonderful dream
had occurred between the two strokes
of the hour. But this is not at all an
unprecedented occurrence. 1t is re-
lated of an English clergyman, who fell
asleep in his pulpit during the singing
of psalm before the sermon, that he
dreamed the events of life before he
awoke, to find that his slumber had
lasted only during the singing of a
single line. Canon Knox Little of
Manchester dreamed that he wrote a
hymn. Remembering it upon waking
up, he wrote it down on the fy-leaf of
handy book. He then fell asleep
again. When he awoke the second
time he had forgotten the words of the
hymn, and supposed that all of the in
cident had been dream, but when he
looked at the tly-leaf in the book he
found there, sure enough, the verses
he had written down, and which are
now incorporated in several hymn
books in England" - Philadelphia
Record.